The Liuthar Gospels (also Gospels of Otto III or Ottonian Gospels) are a work of

Ottonian illumination Ottonian art is a style in pre-romanesque German art, covering also some works from the Low Countries, northern Italy and eastern France. It was named by the art historian Hubert Janitschek after the Ottonian dynasty which ruled Germany and North ...

which are counted among the masterpieces of the period known as the

Ottonian Renaissance The Ottonian Renaissance was a renaissance of Byzantine art, Byzantine and Late Antiquity, Late Antique art in Central Europe, Central and Southern Europe that accompanied the reigns of the first three Holy Roman Emperors of the Ottonian Dynasty, ...

. The manuscript, named after a monk called Liuthar, was probably created around the year 1000 at the order of

Otto III Otto III (June/July 980 – 23 January 1002) was the Holy Roman emperor and King of Italy from 996 until his death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu. Otto III was c ...

at the

Abbey of Reichenau Reichenau Abbey was a Benedictine monastery on Reichenau Island (known in Latin as Augia Dives) in southern Germany. It was founded in 724 by the itinerant Saint Pirmin, who is said to have fled Visigothic Spain ahead of the Moorish invaders, w ...

and lends its name to the ''Liuthar Group'' of Reichenau illuminated manuscripts. The backgrounds of all the images are illuminated in

gold leaf upA gold nugget of 5 mm (0.2 in) in diameter (bottom) can be expanded through hammering into a gold foil of about 0.5 m2 (5.4 sq ft). The Japan.html" ;"title="Toi gold mine museum, Japan">Toi gold mine museum, Japan. Gold leaf is gold that has ...

, a seminal innovation in western illumination. After the French Revolution, the manuscript fell to private property and was only returned in 1848. Today the Gospels belong to the

Aachen Cathedral Treasury The Aachen Cathedral Treasury () is a museum of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aachen under the control of the cathedral chapter, which houses one of the most important collections of medieval church artworks in Europe. In 1978, the Aachen Cathe ...

, and along with the Carolingian Gospels they form one of the two especially significant and valuable manuscripts kept there. In 2003 the manuscript was included by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

in the

Memory of the World Programme UNESCO's Memory of the World (MoW) Programme is an international initiative to safeguard the documentary heritage of humanity against collective amnesia, neglect, decay over time and climatic conditions, as well as deliberate destruction. It ca ...

, along with other, later works of the Reichenau School.

Description and classification

The manuscript

Content and layout

The manuscript comprises 256

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...

pages of 29.8 x 21.5 centimetres containing the

Vulgate The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Diocese of ...

text of the Four

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

s of

Hieronymus Hieronymus, in English pronounced or , is the Latin form of the Ancient Greek name (Hierṓnymos), meaning "with a sacred name". It corresponds to the English given name Jerome (given name), Jerome. Variants * Albanian language, Albanian: Jeroni ...

written with black ink in a single column of

Carolingian minuscule Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one ...

. Titles and headings are in golden

rustic capitals Rustic capitals () is an ancient Roman calligraphic script. Because the term is negatively connoted supposing an opposition to the more 'civilized' form of the Roman square capitals, Bernhard Bischoff prefers to call the script ''canonized capi ...

and the section numbers are also in gold. In addition to the gospels, the

codex The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...

also contains their prologues (called ''Arguments''), a

pericope In rhetoric, a pericope (; Greek , "a cutting-out") is a set of verses that forms one coherent unit or thought, suitable for public reading from a text, now usually of sacred scripture. Description The term can also be used as a way to identi ...

, 31 fullpage miniatures, including a depiction of the

Four Evangelists In Christian tradition, the Four Evangelists are Matthew the Apostle, Matthew, Mark the Evangelist, Mark, Luke the Evangelist, Luke, and John the Evangelist, John, the authors attributed with the creation of the four canonical Gospel accounts ...

, four

initial In a written or published work, an initial is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter (books), chapter, or a paragraph that is larger than the rest of the text. The word is ultimately derived from the Latin ''initiālis'', which means '' ...

pages, 21 images with scenes from the life of

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

, Liuthar's dedication page with a depiction of the

Apotheosis Apotheosis (, ), also called divinization or deification (), is the glorification of a subject to divine levels and, commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity. The origina ...

of Otto III, and twelve canon pages. For the first time in Medieval illumination, 21 pages of upright miniatures with scenes from the Life of Jesus were added, some with two registers one under the other. Despite the small size of these scenes, the figures appear monumental, framed by

arch An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but stru ...

es, with all the backgrounds in

– another novelty. The images are seen as a combination of models from

Late antique Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodization has since been wide ...

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

and Treverene art. Ernst Günther Grimme said of them, "the reality of the eternal determines their appearance." The Liuthar Gospels were probably gifted at the foundation of the royal

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons, a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, headed by a dignitary bearing ...

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

, consecrated to the

Holy Virgin Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loret ...

(

Aachen Cathedral Aachen Cathedral () is a Catholic Church, Catholic church in Aachen, Germany and the cathedral of the Diocese of Aachen. One of the oldest cathedral buildings in Europe, it was constructed as the royal chapel of the Palace of Aachen of Holy Rom ...

) in the year 1000. A lot of evidence demonstrates that for centuries the

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans (disambiguation), Emperor of the Romans (; ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period (; ), was the ruler and h ...

s swore their

coronation A coronation ceremony marks the formal investiture of a monarch with regal power using a crown. In addition to the crowning, this ceremony may include the presentation of other items of regalia, and other rituals such as the taking of special v ...

oath on these Gospels when they were crowned at

, as recorded by the canons of the church college, who also used the Gospels for their own ordination oaths.

Apotheosis of Otto III

The double-sided dedication page preceding the text of the gospels is of great significance. On the left page the monk Liuthar stands in a barbed

Quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...

holding a book of Gospels to hand to Otto III, enthroned on the other page. Above and below in golden capitals on a purple background is a dedicatory inscription in Leonine Hexameter, reading: ''"Emperor Otto, may God clothe your heart with this book. Remember that you received it from Liuthar."'' The image on the opposite page shows Otto on a throne supported by Tellus, the

personification Personification is the representation of a thing or abstraction as a person, often as an embodiment or incarnation. In the arts, many things are commonly personified, including: places, especially cities, National personification, countries, an ...

of the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

on a background of goldleaf. Otto is depicted in the style of an

ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

, wearing a

tunic A tunic is a garment for the torso, usually simple in style, reaching from the shoulders to a length somewhere between the hips and the ankles. It might have arm-sleeves, either short or full-length. Most forms have no fastenings. The name deri ...

and a

chlamys The chlamys (; genitive: ) was a type of ancient Greek cloak. It was worn by men for military and hunting purposes during the Classical, Hellenistic and later periods. By the time of the Byzantine Empire it was part of the state costume of the ...

. Exemplary of Medieval royal imagery, Otto is surrounded by an

aureola An aureola or aureole (diminutive of Latin ''aurea'', "golden") is the radiance of luminous cloud which, in paintings of sacred personages, surrounds the whole figure. In Romance languages, the noun Aureola is usually more related to the d ...

, a motif which is otherwise only used in depictions of

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

. This expresses the idea in Medieval rulership ideology that through his coronation Otto himself became the anointed one, the Christ. This is confirmed by the Hand of God surrounded by a blue halo and superimposed on a cross, which crowns the Emperor, and also by his arms which are outspread in a pose of crucifixion. His right hand holds the

Globus cruciger The for, la, globus cruciger, cross-bearing orb, also known as ''stavroforos sphaira'' () or "the orb and cross", is an Sphere, orb surmounted by a Christian cross, cross. It has been a Christian Church, Christian symbol of authority since the M ...

, while his left is outstretched to receive the Gospels being gifted by Liuthar. The four

symbols of the Evangelists In Christian tradition, the Four Evangelists are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the authors attributed with the creation of the four canonical Gospel accounts. In the New Testament, they bear the following titles: the Gospel of Matthew; the ...

hold the white

scroll A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. Structure A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papyru ...

of the gospel over the breast of the Emperor, thereby clothing his heart with it. The scene is framed by a purple arch. The colour, restricted to Roman Emperors, indicates Otto's imperial status. Two kings performing homage stand on either side with lances. These might be identified with Bolesław of Poland and

Stephen of Hungary Stephen I, also known as King Saint Stephen ( ; ; ; 975 – 15 August 1038), was the last grand prince of the Hungarians between 997 and 1000 or 1001, and the first king of Hungary from 1000 or 1001 until his death in 1038. The year of his b ...

, who were raised to royal dignity by Otto in the year 1000. In the lower register two worldly dignitaries with helmets, lances, and shields approach from the left. Two spiritual dignitaries approach from the right. Each wears an

alb An Alb is a liturgical vestment. ALB, Alb or alb may also refer to: * Alb, Alpine transhumance in Allemannic German Places * Alb (Upper Rhine), a tributary of the Upper Rhine in northern Black Forest near Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany * Al ...

, a

chasuble The chasuble () is the outermost liturgical vestment worn by clergy for the celebration of the Eucharist in Western-tradition Christian churches that use full vestments, primarily in Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches. In the Eastern ...

and a

pallium The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : pallia) is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropolitan bish ...

, showing that they are

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

s, and carries writing implements. This Apotheosis image is thus a variation on the image of

Christ in Majesty Christ in Majesty or Christ in Glory () is the Western Christian image of Christ seated on a throne as ruler of the world, always seen frontally in the centre of the composition, and often flanked by other sacred figures, whose membership change ...

, uniquely influenced by

Byzantine art Byzantine art comprises the body of artistic products of the Eastern Roman Empire, as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from the decline of Rome, decline of western Rome and ...

. Emperor Otto III is shown crowned by God, supported by the Earth, an Earthly Christ with his heart full of the Gospel holding power over the world.

The cover

A silver

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of c ...

from about 1170/80 was attached to the back cover of the Carolingian Treasury Gospels until 1870, when it was recycled as a front cover for the Liuthar Gospels. In 1972, this cover was removed and the Gospels were rebound. This cover measures 30.8 x 23.7 centimetres and consists of a wooden core, a sheet of silver, and Byzantine ivories from the middle of the tenth century. The ivories form the centre of the cover, depicting busts of four saints:

John the Evangelist John the Evangelist ( – ) is the name traditionally given to the author of the Gospel of John. Christians have traditionally identified him with John the Apostle, John of Patmos, and John the Presbyter, although there is no consensus on how ...

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

, Theodore Tyron and

Saint George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...

. The silver sheet consists of the Four Evangelists arranged around the ivories in lunettes and an archangel standing on either side. The ivories are meant to serve as the folding wings of the ivory relief of the golden book cover of the Treasury Gospels and have no connection whatsoever with the silverwork evangelists and angels

Aachen Christmas carol

In 1886, the master of the Aachen Minster college, Heinrich Böckeler found the so-called ''Aachen Fragment'' in the Liuthar Gospels, which was dated orthographically to the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries.August Brecher, ''Musik im Aachener Dom in zwölf Jahrhunderten'', Einhard, Aachen 1998, , p. 31. It contained the beginning of the oldest known

Christmas carol A Christmas carol is a Carol (music), carol on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas and holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French or ...

in German language, the ''Aachen Christmas Carol''. The melody, recorded in square notation, comes with the words "''Syt willekomen heirre kirst want du unser alre here bis''" (May you welcome us, Lord Christ, thou who art the Lord of us all).

Bibliography

Johannes Fried Johannes Fried (born 23 May 1942, in Hamburg) is a German historian, professor, and medievalist. Biography Fried studied at the University of Heidelberg, where he obtained his doctorate in 1970 and his habilitation in 1977. He was professor at ...

. ''Otto III. und Boleslaw Chrobry. Das Widmungsbild des Aachener Evangeliars, der "Akt von Gnesen" und das frühe polnische und ungarische Königtum. Eine Bildanalyse und ihre historischen Folgen.'' Steiner, Wiesbaden 1989, * Ulrich Kuder. ''Liuthar-Evangeliar.'' In Michael Brandt, Arne Eggebrecht (edd.): ''Bernward von Hildesheim und das Zeitalter der Ottonen,'' Ausstellungskatalog Hildesheim 1993. Mainz 1993, 2 volumes, pp. 84–87. * Herta Lepie, Georg Minkenberg. ''Die Schatzkammer des Aachener Domes'', Brimberg, Aachen 1995, , pp. 60–61. * Josef Els. ''Das Aachener Liuthar-Evangeliar. Zur Bedeutung des Aachener Evangeliars Ottos III.'' In ''Rheinische Heimatpflege'' 48, 2011, pp. 181–194. * Rainer Kahsnitz. ''Ungewöhnliche Szenen im Aachener Liuthar-Evangeliar. Ein Beitrag zum Problem des christologischen Zyklus der Reichenauer Buchmalerei.'' In ''Buchschätze des Mittelalters.'' Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2011, pp. 63–91.

References

{{Authority control 1000s books Aachen Cathedral Treasury Ottonian illuminated manuscripts 10th-century illuminated manuscripts 11th-century illuminated manuscripts Gospel Books Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor